Bothell, Woodinville connect on joint pedestrian, bike lane project

by Jeff Switzer
The cities of Woodinville and Bothell have completed design work on two projects in the Woodin Elementary and Woodinville High School neighborhoods, where 5-foot-wide bike lanes, sidewalks, and planting strips are being designed to make the access between downtown Woodinville and the schools more friendly to non-motorized transportation.
Woodinville is planning to award the bid for their share, NE 195th Street, at the beginning of this week, with construction planned to be completed by mid-October.
However, Bothell is planning on waiting until school is out next year before they begin construction on their portion, 132nd Avenue NE, completing the design by December, awarding the contract in spring 1997, and completing construction before the 1997 school year.
Alan Sato, project manager for Bothell's share, says the purpose is to complete the link from the school to SR-522.
"We don't want to do this construction during school because of the number of children who walk through her to Woodin," Sato said.

Bothell's project
While most may feel they haven't left the city limits, Woodinville stays to the east side of 132nd Avenue NE, the road between Dairy Queen and Woodin Elementary.
Bothell's project plans to construct an 8-foot-wide bicycle/pedestrian path on the east side of the road, separated from the traffic by a 3-foot-wide planting strip.
Because of the number of residences along the road, two sheds, and several hundred feet of fencing within the road right-of-way (ROW), residents expressed their concerns to engineers at last week's open house. Several were concerned about noise, access, and loss of privacy. Others sought solutions to some slope and shed support problems and city staff are looking into alternatives.
The project is budgeted at $300,000, with $225,000 for construction.

Woodinville's project
Woodinville will be constructing a combination of a 5-foot bicycle lane and 6-foot pedestrian lanes.
Unlike the Bothell project, the bike lanes will be adjacent to traffic in both directions, and the cement sidewalk, primarily on the Woodinville High side of NE 195th Street, will be separated from the road by a planting strip of varying widths.
"A lot of time and effort went into utilizing what we have there and keeping costs down," said Jerry Benner, a consultant with Perteet Engineering.
Woodinville's costs for construction run $320,000, and between the two cities, an interlocal agreement will share some of the costs past the Woodin Elementary intersection on 130th Place NE.